After reading The Maze Runner, the book club members attended a movie showing and for about half an hour, ranted about the differences between the two. Here are some of their thoughts:

About The Maze Runner.

The story surrounds a boy named Thomas, who mysteriously ends up in a place he never knew existed called the Glade. When he arrives after being transported in the box, he finds many other boys in the same situation as himself, with no idea why they ended up in this place. Most of the other boys had accepted that they had to stay in the place, surrounded by the walls that opened to a maze. But Thomas was more curious and stubborn than the others, and wouldn’t simply accept that. Thomas becomes a runner, so he could scope out the maze, and find an exit. The majority of the Gladers live in fear of what’s inside the maze. The grievers. If you get stung by one, it courses poison through you that makes recovering from it difficult. He finds a way out, and brings the other boys who were willing to come with him.

Book and Movie DifferencesThe appearance of the Grievers in the movie differs from the appearance described in the book. In the book they’re described as something like a slimeball, but in the movie they appear as something like an animatronic scorpion. Another difference is the poison antidote. In the book they had the vials of antidote all along, but in the film they only have two vials provided for them in the box, after Alby gets stung. All in all, I think the movie followed pretty closely to the film, even though there were some differences. ~Mariah Powers-Davis

Student #2: Now I will share a little bit of of what we discussed about the book at our meeting. One of the topics we talked about was should they have let Ben live? The conclusion we came to was if there were girls in the Glade that they might have voted to let him live. We also discussed who our favorite characters were, how we thought the government was formed in the Glade, and if Newt was a motherly figure.

Today we have a guest post from Rachel Ohm, one of the teen book club members at our school. She read Hiroshima by John Hersey and here are her thoughts:

The Big BangNo, this isn’t about the Big Bang Theory. This is about Hiroshima and the big atomic bomb. Little Boy (that was its name) was dropped August 6th, 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan. This was the first atomic bomb to have ever been dropped on a city. The book is titled Hiroshima and it tells the tale of 6 people that survived Little Boy. It flips back and forth between each person and tells what happened on the day of the blast. From then on it describes how each person “saw” the bomb hit and how they managed to survive. Truth is no one actually saw the bomb drop. The survivors describe it as a giant flash that came out of nowhere. It came like a thief in the night, silent. The rest of the book is obviously about the aftermath of the bomb. It’s extremely grotesque and detailed about the wounds of thousands. All the people left barely alive piled in Asano Park, but then it began to overflow and people were pushed into a nearby river to drown. One of the survivors said he dragged as many people onto a small boat and rowed over to the other side to higher ground, but the next morning the water level was so high all the people he carried over had drowned anyway. Never-the-less he kept on trying to help as many people as he could. All the survivors (except for one, she had a broken leg) helped the citizens of Hiroshima as much as possible, but it still wasn’t enough. Thousands of people were dying every day due to unknown causes (at the time it was unknown) or severe injuries. At our monthly book club meeting the topic of Hiroshima was welcomed with grim smiles and the room was nearly silent. What else was to be expected? As Americans we feel guilty that our older generation did this to Japan, but we also know that had we not done it we wouldn’t be in the position we are today. I could barely get the words out to describe the book, in fact the words I did say weren’t accurate enough. I have never read such a disturbing and ghastly book. Knowing it’s true and real made it all the more sickening. I can’t even talk about the things written in that book without feeling ill, and I don’t have a weak stomach! All I can say is if you want to read this book don’t eat before you do.

The Teen Book Club is underway once again! It is the start of the 2014-2015 school year, and the students have met, the votes have been tallied, and the list has been comprised. Here it is:

October 2nd The Maze Runner (Bloggers: Caleb, Christina)Hiroshima (Bloggers: Rachel, Emily)October 23Everlost (Bloggers: Amanda)Star Wars: A New Dawn (Corban)November 13Paper Towns (Haley)A Princess of Mars (Zander)December 11Eragon (Troy)Enders ShadowJanuary 8Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Rings (Aidan)The Book ThiefSo glad, too, that we will be having some guest bloggers in the shape of my students. Let's see what they have to say about the books in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned....

Chris Struyk-Bonn

I have had a few jobs in my life that I didn't enjoy: detassling corn, working in a small motor parts factory, framing pictures, serving food, and rejecting bad eggs in an egg factory. Today, I take part in a book club for teens and I love every minute of it.